Consistency...

It had been quite difficult for me the past few weeks as I tried to achieve a consistent 15k timing that I had set myself with. Well, as per the previous training, my timing variance is great where time and time again, I tried to achieve a much more uniform time but could not. I was running at 3.22min (620m) but then, it resulted in my body trying to 'struggle' to uphold the pace although I could finish the 15km distance. Therefore, yesterday I decided to run at a slower pace than usual, just to experiment if my timing would be more uniform. To my surprise, my timing was more uniform than usual, not exceeding -/+5 sec per lap. With exceptions to those anomalies where I 'pia' during the middle of the run, I kept everything strictly under control and in a relaxed manner. Timing is as below:

Lap 1: 3min 28sec (3.28)
Lap 2: 3min 29sec (6.57) +1sec
Lap 3: 3min 27sec (10.25)-2sec
Lap 4: 3min 32sec (13.57)+5sec
Lap 5: 3min 30sec (17.28)-2sec
Lap 6: 3min 30sec (20.58) --
Lap 7: 3min 30sec (24.28) --
Lap 8: 3min 32sec (28.01)+2sec (4.96K)
Lap 9: 3min 32sec (31.33) --
Lap10: 3min 31sec (35.04)-1sec
Lap11: 3min 31sec (38.36) --
Lap12: 3min 30sec (42.06)-1sec
Lap13: 3min 34sec (45.41)+4sec
Lap14: 3min 29sec (49.11)-5sec
Lap15: 3min 32sec (52.43)+3sec
Lap16: 3min 31sec (56.15)-1sec
Lap17: 3min 33sec (59.48)+2sec (10.54K)
Lap18: 3min 32sec (1:03.21)-1sec
Lap19: 3min 19sec (1:06.41)-13sec (Not Applicable timing as I tried to pia)
Lap20: 3min 20sec (1:10.02)+1sec (Same as lap 19)
Lap21: 3min 32sec (1:13.34)+12sec (Back to normal)
Lap22: 3min 30sec (1:17.04)-2sec
Lap23: 3min 31sec (1:20.36)+1sec
Lap24: 3min 30sec (1:24.07)-1sec
Lap25: 3min 03sec (1:27.11)-27sec (15.5K)(All out running)

My total running time was quite consistent at this point and I am more than happy although I was much slower than my normal training pace. At the same time, I found that it is much relaxing to run at this pace than running at a 3.20min/620m pace. By referring back to my pacing chart, I was running at 5min39sec/km which at the full distance of 21.1K, I will be finishing at 1hr 59min 05sec. This was my finishing time for Singapore Half and I intend to break it this year by running at a much faster time. I hope that this can be achieved and the first venue to test my result of training would be the Putrajaya Half. I would like to rock this race but it seemed that I am not that ready yet to fully rock kau kau lat. There is still a long way to go for me to finish under 1hr 53min and I hope that my training is going in the right direction. God bless.

'Quantity does not matter when it comes to training. It is the quality and consistency that counts'